Two-thirds of Americans don’t want guns in public places: survey

A study published Thursday reveals the vast majority of Americans don’t want to see the free use of guns in public spaces.

According to The Guardian, leading public health researchers writing in the American Journal of Public Health, found 64 percent don’t support guns on college campuses, places of worship, government buildings, schools, bars and sports venues.

“That’s an important finding because it goes against the general trend of what lawmakers are doing,” said study co-author Prof. Julia Wolfson.

Many states over the last few years have passed bills allowing guns on college campuses, in government buildings and other public spaces. Other states have pending legislation that would similarly provide open carry in public spaces. Congress could also decide whether it wants to significantly alter federal laws regulating where concealed weapons are allowed.

The study spoke to nearly 4,000 respondents, named a series of locations and asked the respondents whether they think people should be allowed to bring firearms to those places.

A minuscule 9.4 percent of respondents said that they were fine with guns in all nine places. Only restaurants, service settings, and retail stores were locations in which more than 30 percent said people should be allowed to carry guns.

Support for guns didn’t vary by region around the United States, despite open carry being more prevalent in southern states.

“The political conversation around guns has been dominated by the gun lobby,” Wolfson said. She said that the researchers “were surprised that there was such low support for carrying guns in public places.”